Travel a ‘human right:’ Ai Weiwei

AFP, BEIJING

Photo: Reuters

Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei (艾未未) has a metaphor for the travel ban that will prevent him attending the growing number of exhibitions of his work being held around the world as his renown increases.

“I can swim, but not far,” Ai said of the ban on leaving China imposed last week despite the expiry of a yearlong bail term. “I hope I can travel. This is an important part of freedom. This is also a human right.”

A year after he was freed from unofficial detention, the outspoken 55-year-old, who has become a thorn in the side of the Chinese government, clearly chafes at the continuing restrictions on his freedom.

In an interview at his Beijing studio Ai, who spent 81 days in custody last year, described his frustration at the ongoing case against him.

“I have a lot of art activities, design and construction in the next one or two years, which will be overseas because they are not permitted domestically. Limiting me from leaving China will influence these events,” he said.

Ai was detained last year as police rounded up activists amid online calls for Arab Spring-style protests in China. On his release on June 22 last year, authorities accused him of tax evasion and barred him from leaving Beijing for a year — a restriction that has prevented him from attending a number of his exhibitions.

Ai has just missed an opening at London’s Serpentine Gallery for a pavilion with a floating platform roof and an interior clad in cork, which he co-designed by communicating on Skype.

He had hoped to attend an October show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and take up an invitation to teach in Berlin.